Vancouver readies for FIFA World Cup, with tournament 100 days away

The countdown is on—we are exactly 100 days away from the World Cup coming to North America.

There are just 100 days until the World Cup begins, with seven matches set to be played at BC Place.

Projections suggest 350,000 fans are expected to visit Vancouver during the tournament.

But if you don’t get a ticket, you’ll have a chance to watch matches at the FIFA fan festival at the PNE.

The City of Surrey has also announced it will offer three fan zones to watch matches on screens at the Civic Plaza, the Cloverdale Agriplex and South Surrey Athletic Park.

“We all know there are going to be very few of us who will ever get a ticket, so the fan zones will be packed,” Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke told reporters following the announcement. “This comes probably once in a lifetime to Canada, so this is a great opportunity for us to build community—and of course building it around sport.”

As far as traffic disruptions go, the City of Vancouver says road closures will not be as extensive as initially planned, with the only prolonged closure on a section of Pacific Boulevard from mid-May through late July.

“This is one of the things about nearing the event,” FIFA World Cup 2026 Vancouver Host Committee Lead Jessie Adcock told a crowd at a Greater Vancouver Board of Trade event on Tuesday. “When you’re further out, you don’t know the details of what you’re working on. A lot of it is calculus.”

“A lot of it is like you’re looking in a crystal ball. We got the draw, and after the draw, we’ve found out what teams are coming. We get closer and closer to the event, and our plans crystalize,” Adcock continued.

TransLink is also revealing its plans for the tournament.

On local match days people will not be able to access BC Place from Stadium-Chinatown or Yaletown Roundhouse Skytrain stations and will instead need to get off at Main Street-Science World.

However, transit service will be expanded to deal with the big crowds.

“We know we need to do that to meet the capacity and we’ve learned the best ways to do that as well,” said Anita Bathe with TransLink. “But really that lesson from the 2010 Olympics is to have more people on the ground on game days and throughout the tournament.”

The first game at BC Place goes June 13 beginning with a matchup between Australia and a yet-to-be determined opponent.